A few months ago, I started noticing that the minute my feet hit the floor (after I’d hit the snooze button 2 or 16 times or so) a sharp pain would shoot through the heels of my feet and up into my leg.

“Well crap,” I thought, hobbling to the coffee maker and remembering that plantar fasciitis (it’s where the tissue connecting the heel to the toes is inflamed) was one of about a million different physical ailments that have taken up residence in my family tree.

I went to the doctor; I’ve got the orthotics and the foot massager and the ice packs and the little charts with cartoon people illustrating stretches that help to heal it. But those things only help if you do them … every day.

What if I ignored it because I’m just too dang busy to deal with it? What if I didn’t treat it because that would take time and it hurts?

It would become permanent. It would become my new normal.

I thought about this as a scrolled through the news one evening this week—feet aching after a long day. (Trust me, I’ve got a point.) Look at a sampling of the stories I saw:

• “‘Genital preference’ is actually a form of discrimination against trans people.”

• “Scandinavian experts are urging the use of child-like sex dolls in a bid to stop pedophiles from abusing real life children.”

• “Maryland moves to be sanctuary state.”

• “Chelsea Clinton To Receive Lifetime Impact Award For Some Reason”

• “The Daily Star (UK) calls the [London terror] suspect a ‘black or Asian man who was spotted running with an eight-inch knife.’ The Daily Mirror (UK) called him ‘reportedly Asian in appearance.’”

A tweet I saw from Jack Buckby (in reference to the Westminster terror attack) summed up my feelings pretty well: “I’ve never felt quite so despondent. All I noticed in London 2day was silent defeatism. No anger, just acceptance that this is our life now.”

Pay special attention to that last line: “…just acceptance that this is our life now.”

Those headlines are our new normal. While many of us may be momentarily taken aback by the disgusting idea of a sex dolls for pedophiles or scoff at the idea that a thirty-something who’s done nothing particularly special with her life is receiving a lifetime achievement award…this is by and large our new normal. And after we gasp and pooh-pooh for a moment, we all collectively shrug our shoulders and move on.

This is what happens when there are no absolutes; when anything goes; when we hold certain groups above reproach.

Stay with me here.

In our new normal:

• Don’t “Pedophilia dolls” make sense because we can’t have these depraved individuals actually thinking that there’s something gravely wrong with them?
• Doesn’t the idea that all non-bisexuals are bigoted make sense because preference would mean a rejection of something else—and we can’t have rejection?
• Doesn’t a state’s move to welcome even MORE illegal aliens (in order to make “make the state feel safer”) immediately following the brutal rape of a 14 year old girl by illegal aliens make sense because we can’t have someone thinking that we might not want them here?
• Doesn’t a lifetime achievement award given to a thirty-something make sense in a world where everyone deserves a participation trophy?
• Doesn’t calling someone “Asian” when they’re very clearly not makes sense because we’d better not even appear to link the person to Islam?

This is the world that political correctness has created. 

Here’s the thing: absolutely none of this jazz can logically be considered crazy when we (“collective we”) routinely accept absurdity as a rule.

We accept that pedophiles are just people. We accept that it’s “Islamophobic” to worry about acts of terror committed by Muslims in full adherence to the Qur’an. We accept that it’s better to care about the potential sensitivities of illegal aliens than the laws they break and the people some of them hurt. We accept 71 different genders even when biology tells us there are two.

Rather than deal in absolutes, and face the facts as they are… we let it all fester. And this is the twisted new normal we get as a result.

 Dealing in absolutes and facing facts is hard. It means recognizing that some things are good, and others are bad.

Let’s get back to my injury for a moment. If I don’t face the fact that I HAVE to treat this condition every single day until it’s gone, it WILL become permanently part of my life. It’s just a matter of time.

Don’t we have the same choice when it comes to the world we live in? If we don’t face facts, and instead mire ourselves in the deceptive veil of political correctness on an endless quest to offend no one, this is only going to get worse. Much worse.

It’s only a matter of time.

Mary Ramirez is a full-time writer, creator of www.afuturefree.com (a political commentary blog), and contributor to The Chris Salcedo Show (TheBlaze Radio Network, M-F, 3-5. ET). She can be reached at: afuturefree@aol.com; or on Twitter: @AFutureFree